Saturday, September 15, 2018

‘Palinopsia / seeing again’ is a laser projection work on a Glow-in-the-Dark (GITD) surface that Jurgen Meekel and Jill Richards made in collaboration with engineers Daniel de Kock and Jarryd Bekker.

The Laser work

The most recent iteration of the work was the practical component for Jurgen’s MAFA exhibition: ‘Palinopsia: Images at their Ends: A Practice-based study in Traces, Temporality and Image Dissipation, using Glow In The Dark Laser Technology as a Medium for Contemporary Art.’ A short clarifying 3 min registration from an exhibition at Wits / Point of Order, 2018 can be found at https://youtu.be/N9zCj4SYF90.

With a purplish-blue UV laser as a projection source and using fully covered painted phosphorescent canvas as the projection surface, after-glowing images are projected that appear line by line (much like a fax or inkjet printer). In this way, the projection canvas records the image. The projected image/text elements will diminish in luminosity over time. New elements are projected as the older ones fade.

When projecting with lasers onto a glow-in-the-dark surface the image will leave a clear green trace and remains visible for some time (4-6 min). After that, one can re-project over the remaining image to create a visual layering.The way temporality and perseverance leave a finite mark or trace of the projected image positions glow-in-the-dark laser projection between cinema and photography.

The PerformanceThe proposed work for ISEA will be a collaboration between Jurgen Meekel and Jill Richards. Similarly to G-I-T-D laser projection, music operates on the basis of time. Therefore we have chosen existing contemporary musical pieces (recordings of my performances), self-composed pieces and pre-produced soundscapes from various audio recordings that have a relationship with temporality and decay. There will be 5 sections of each 10 / 20 minutes. The individual sections are different ways to engage and play with the medium, wherein some parts the improvised and premeditated music and sounds propel the projection and vice-versa in other parts. Like this, an audience will also be able to distinguish the difference between the sound and the visual approaches. There will be overlapping transitions in visual and audio depending on the dissipation of the images and timing of the soundscapes. It takes around 8 minutes for an image to fully dissipate and we will also use sounds that linger.

The sections:

Fragments and omissionsPalinacousis (hearing again)

DecaySilence and edges

Impermanence

Biographies of the artists

Jurgen Meekel, Amsterdam - 1963

Living in Johannesburg since 2005

http://jurgenmeekels.blogspot.co.za/2009/04/art-tra-rat-kr4k.htmlCum laude graduate from the Rietveld Academy of Fine-Arts in audio-visual art and sculpture in Amsterdam (1989). After his study he worked on art installation pieces, sculptures and video work. Some of his installation work was acquired by the Central Museum of Modern Art in Utrecht. From 1996 till present date he also worked on motion-graphic design, animation, camera and sound work, compositing, visual effects, editing and music scoring for video productions in the arts and adjacent applied fields. Currently, he lectures Post Production and VFX at Wits School of the Arts in Film &TV and continues producing, collaborating and exhibiting work in the field of the arts.

Jill Richards is a South African pianist specialising in new music. Versatile and dynamic, her interests range from Bach to free improvisation.

Her career includes collaborations with numerous composers from around the world. She has a longstanding working relationship with Kevin Volans who has written many solo works as well as piano duos for her. These she has performed with the composer as partner. Jill has worked with Jörg Schäffer, François Sarhan, Rudiger Meyer, Clare Loveday, and many others. She has also toured with live music performances to William Kentridge's films.

Jill has performed and been broadcast in the UK, Europe, North America and Australasia. Among these were the BBC broadcasts of the premières of solo and duo works of Kevin Volans. She has released five CD's, including the Grammy-nominated "Cicada" of Volans, as well as the complete piano music of Michael Blake.

Jill has performed with renowned Spanish composer and sound artist Francisco Lopez. She also collaborates with sound artist João Orecchia, visual artist Marcus Neustetter, composer-drummer Christophe Fellay, video artists Dorothee Kreuzfeld and Jurgen Meekel, and Joke Lanz of Sudden Infant. Jill and Waldo Alexander recorded works by Kevin Volans for piano, violin and viola for the Ergodos label; the CD includes Volans' 9th piano etude, written for her.

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